A lot of people thought he was done after defeating Andre Berto on Sept. 12, 2015 for his 49th victory. But there was a lot of money to be made for fighting McGregor, and money often lures a lot of different athletes out of retirement.

A rematch between Mayweather and McGregor might not be a bad idea depending on how the first fight goes down. But Mayweather does seem serious that next weekend’s bout will be his last, so boxing fans would be wise to cherish every round.

Pedro Martinez was back on the mound in a No. 45 Boston Red Sox uniform on Thursday night.

The three-time Cy Young winner took part in the Abbot Financial Management Oldtime Baseball Game to benefit the John Martin Fund and ALS Therapy Development Institute. Red Sox brass, the Frates family and many others were on hand as NESN.com’s Rachel Holt tells you how they all honored Martin, a longtime videographer at NESN.

Click here to donate to the John Martin Fund and watch the video above to see Pedro take the mound.

There’s a new sheriff in Miami, and you probably have heard his name a time or two.

As incoming CEO and part owner of the Miami Marlins, New York Yankees legend Derek Jeter should have a lot of pull in the city.

When it comes to the possibility of removing the bright oceanic sculpture in center field at Marlins Park, however, even Jeter won’t be able to get rid of it.

Upon Jeter’s arrival, there was some speculation that there might be some people who want the 73-foot sculpture removed. Nonetheless, the sculpture is not controlled by the franchise, but by Miami-Dade County, according to the Miami Herald, and the county has the final say on its whereabouts.

County office officials have said there is no plan for it to be moved. They even noted, per the Herald, that the sculpture is “permanently installed” and “not movable.”

The monstrous sculpture provides an ocean and beach scene accompanied with bright lights for every Marlins home run.

So, it looks like Marlins fans might as well embrace the sculpture. It’s not going anywhere right now.

Tom Brady is one of the most prepared players in the NFL, and his tremendous work ethic certainly has paid dividends over the course of his 17-year career.

The five-time Super Bowl champion goes to great lengths to make sure he’s ready for Sunday, so much so that he’ll occasionally take part in meetings that he really doesn’t need to attend.

“I’ll give you a legendary story, this happened the first day of camp, he was in the special teams meeting and he isn’t on special teams, paying full attention writing notes down,” Rob Gronkowski told FOX Sports’ Jay Glazer. “There you go. That just shows how hard the guy works. He’s in on special teams meetings, too.”

Brady is expected to take the Patriots’ offense to great heights in the 2017 season, but judging by Gronkowski’s anecdote, it sounds like TB12 is ready to back up kicker Stephen Gostkowski or be used as a blocker on the punt-return team.

Kevin Durant has strong feelings about the way the United States of America is headed under President Donald Trump, and he isn’t afraid to make them public.

The Golden State Warriors superstar made headlines Thursday when he said he wouldn’t attend the White House if the ‘Dubs are invited for winning the 2017 NBA Finals. But that wasn’t the only thing Durant said in a revealing interview with ESPN’s Chris Haynes in the wake of the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., and Trump’s controversial response to it.

“He’s definitely driving it,” Durant said of Trump’s role in racial tensions in the U.S. “I feel ever since he’s got into office, or since he ran for the presidency, our country has been so divided, and it’s not a coincidence. When (Barack) Obama was in office, things were looking up. We had so much hope in our communities where I come from because we had a black president, and that was a first.

“So to see that and to be where we are now, it just felt like we took a turn for the worse, man. It all comes from who is in the administration. It comes from the top. Leadership trickles down to the rest of us. So, you know, if we have someone in office that doesn’t care about all people, then we won’t go anywhere as a country. In my opinion, until we get him out of here, we won’t see any progress.”

Those are some powerful words from one of the best basketball players on the planet.

The NFL and NFL Players Association might already have a 2021 problem.

NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith discussed the league’s current collective bargaining agreement, which is over in 2021, during an interview with MMQB.com’s Albert Breer on Thursday. And football fans probably won’t find his answer very reassuring.

“I think that the likelihood of either a strike or a lockout is almost a virtual certainty,” he said, as transcribed by ESPN.com.

That big news comes after Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott’s six-game suspension, which the NFLPA is appealing, for alleged domestic violence. The league and union don’t appear to be on the best of terms, either, as they both publicly called out the other side following the Elliott decision.

Of course, the league had a lockout in 2011, but that was resolved before the games began. So, will there be missed games once this CBA is up?

“I don’t know now, but I mean, let’s look at our history,” Smith said. “The owners do a deal in 2006 and opt out in 2008. We do a deal in 2011 with no opt-outs because we like the benefits under the current deal and we didn’t want to give the owners an opportunity to opt out and take back the gains that we currently have.

“If there is no renegotiation of the collective bargaining agreement and we reach 2021, there is no uncapped year, right? Because the last time we went through it, we found out the owners lied and cheated about the uncapped year. So why would I do that again?”

So, enjoy NFL football for the next few years, because it’s anyone’s guess what will happen in 2021.

Conor McGregor has been confident of victory throughout the build-up to his Aug. 26 superfight with boxing legend Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas, but a recent change to the bout should make the UFC champion even more sure of his abilities.

“If we are in 8-ounce gloves, he will be floored multiple times in the first round,” McGregor said last week, per Brett Okamoto of ESPN.com.

“I believe first-round KO in 8-ounce gloves. The fact I can’t follow through (like) in MMA and pound the head into the canvas, and there’s a 10-count in boxing, maybe I’ll give him second round. But 8-ounce gloves, he will be done in two.”

McGregor remains a heavy underdog among oddsmakers, per OddsShark, but this glove change could give him a better chance for an upset because it makes the fight less like normal boxing. Every bit helps when you step into an arena with which you’re not familiar.

Mayweather, who owns a perfect 49-0 record in his legendary boxing career, doesn’t seem fazed by the rule change. In fact, he already knows where he’s going to celebrate his victory over McGregor next weekend.

Red Sox owner John Henry told the Boston Herald’s Michael Silverman on Thursday that he believes the team should lead the effort to change the name of Yawkey Way outside Fenway Park.

Henry said he’s “haunted” by the racist past of former Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey, whose team was the last one in Major League Baseball to have an African-American player on its roster, in 1959.

The public street has been named after Yawkey since 1977, but, according to the Herald, that could change if the Red Sox and ’47, which owns stores across the street from Fenway, ask the City of Boston to approve a request. Bobby D’Angelo of ’47 told the Herald the company would be OK with the move, and Henry certainly is, too.

“We ought to be able to lead the effort, and if others in the community favor a change, we would welcome it — particularly in light of the country’s current leadership stance with regard to intolerance,” Henry said in an email to the Herald.

Added Henry: “The Red Sox don’t control the naming or renaming of streets. But for me, personally, the street name has always been a consistent reminder that it is our job to ensure the Red Sox are not just multi-cultural, but stand for as many of the right things in our community as we can — particularly in our African-American community and in the Dominican community that has embraced us so fully. The Red Sox Foundation and other organizations the Sox created such as Home Base have accomplished a lot over the last 15 years, but I am still haunted by what went on here a long time before we arrived.”

The Red Sox are off Thursday, and will face the AL East rival New York Yankees on Friday to open a three-game weekend series at Fenway.

Colin Kaepernick appeared headed for a long, successful NFL career when he first came on the scene in Week 9 of the 2012 season and led the San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl appearance just three months later.

Fast forward to 2017, though, and things dramatically have changed. Kaepernick is without an NFL job, while Smith has led the Chiefs to the playoffs in three of four seasons after San Francisco traded him to Kansas City.

Smith recently was asked about Kaepernick struggling to find NFL employment, and the Chiefs QB, like many of us, has been surprised at how his former teammate’s career has panned out.

“It’s hard for me to comment on it,” Smith told The Kansas City Star. “I don’t know. Lot going on in that landscape right now. Certainly when I was there, he was playing at a really, really high level, right? Had a lot in front of him as far as a career goes. He was playing really good football.

“Crazy to think he’s not playing. Yeah, that’s a crazy thing. As good as he was playing. Young, strong, I felt like he had a long career ahead of him. Crazy that at this point he’s out of a job.”

Kaepernick, who has been a lightning rod for criticism because of his national anthem protest, hasn’t had many suitors this offseason, either. The Baltimore Ravens reportedly were interested in his services, but the team ultimately went in another direction. Many believed the Dolphins would at least look at Kaepernick following Ryan Tannehill’s season-ending injury, but Miami was able to pull Jay Cutler out of retirement to serve as its starting signal-caller this season.

Kaepernick’s chances of landing an NFL gig continue to dwindle, as the 2017 regular season kicks off in just a few weeks.

As far as answers go, good luck finding one better than what Marshawn Lynch said Thursday.

The Oakland Raiders running back is back in the NFL after a one-year retirement, and he has been one of the main discussion points after Week 1 of the preseason because of his decision to sit during “The Star-Spangled Banner.” So, it made sense that reporters tried to ask him about it Thursday.

But Lynch took a different approach when asked about the “elephant in the room” in this NSFW (explicit language) video.

Usually Marshawn likes to run into dudes’ faces, but he juked around these questions like he was back at Cal. pic.twitter.com/e011MgzpJW

UPDATE (Thursday, Aug. 17 at 7:20 p.m. ET): Well, it looks like LeBron James and Kyrie Irving might not have crossed paths after all. While both were in Miami over the weekend, ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith reports a meeting never took place.

ORGINAL STORY: If reports are true, Kyrie Irving probably isn’t very interested in being around LeBron James.

But as fate would have it, James and Irving found themselves in the same city over the weekend. James was in Miami for a Pro Am event, while Irving also was in the area taking part in a pick-up game with John Wall. The two Cavs stars reportedly crossed paths during their time in South Beach, but it allegedly didn’t produce the outcome many would have expected.

“From very reliable sources. Plural. Kyrie and LeBron were in the same room over the weekend in Florida,” ESPN Cleveland’s Tom Rizzo said on “The Really Big Show. “Apparently these guys were in the same room, and here’s the deal. I don’t know if there’s a thawing-out process. All I do know is LeBron didn’t punch Kyrie the way Stephen A thought he would. I can report that. As for what they talked about or discussed … it was very cool. They didn’t get into any heated discussions.”

Rizzo’s report refutes an earlier report from ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who said LeBron would be tempted to “beat Kyrie’s ass” if they ever crossed paths. But maybe the two have bonded over their plans to leave Cleveland, as one report indicates the 2017 season “100 percent” will be James’ last with the Cavaliers.

Plenty of people cracked jokes after Jordan Leandre’s first pitch at Wednesday’s Boston Red Sox game hit a photographer square in the crotch, but one of the best tweets came from an unlikely source.

Former NBA point guard Steve Nash apparently was scrolling through Twitter after the pregame gaffe and stumbled upon a video of it. But when Nash saw the tweet directly below the video, he couldn’t help but notice that it summed up Twitter pretty nicely.

Sort of sums up social media…a plea to stop bigotry and hate preceded by a guy taking one in the nards. Both universal. pic.twitter.com/S0NWNWIl0n

Nash went viral on Twitter on Tuesday, too, after he tweeted about President Donald Trump’s response to the violence in Charlottesville, Va., so he’s not doing too badly for himself in retirement. Hopefully, he charges his phone so he can keep it up, though.

If the NBA champion Golden State Warriors eventually receive — and accept — an invitation to the White House, don’t expect Kevin Durant to be there.

The Warriors star forward, like so many other professional athletes, is discouraged after last weekend’s white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., and president Donald Trump’s subsequent response to the violence. And if Durant at one time was considering joining his teammates in Washington, the events in Virginia might’ve finally dissuaded the 2017 NBA Finals MVP from doing so.

Durant, a 28-year-old Maryland native, doesn’t seem worried about how his teammates would react to his potential absence.

“I don’t agree with what (Trump) agrees with, so my voice is going to be heard by not (going to the White House),” Durant said. “That’s just me personally, but if I know my guys well enough, they’ll all agree with me.”

Durant, who told Haynes that his dream as a kid was to take the Larry O’Brien Trophy to the steps of the White House, also offered his take on the “Unite the Right” rally and the role, if any, that Trump played in it.

“What’s going on in Charlottesville, that was unfathomable,” Durant said. ” … (Trump’s) definitely driving (the escalation of racial tension). I feel ever since he’s got into office, or since he ran for the presidency, our country has been so divided, and it’s not a coincidence.

“When (Barack) Obama was in office, things were looking up. We had so much hope in our communities where I come from because we had a black President, and that was a first.”

If the Warriors do visit Trump’s White House, Durant won’t be the only player staying home. Teammate Andre Iguodala already has said “Hell nah,” and Stephen Curry hinted at possibly sitting out, too.

Contract holdouts typically end as the NFL regular season nears, but that might not be the case for Aaron Donald.

The Los Angeles Rams defensive end has yet to join the team this preseason as he continues to sit out amid contract frustrations. The sides appear nowhere close to an agreement, which reportedly could result in Donald carrying his holdout into the regular season.

“One source speculated that he could envision Donald sitting out 2017, though a lot can change in any negotiation in a hurry,” ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Thursday, citing league sources. “But the fact that such strong thoughts exist now provides a snapshot into where the two sides are today: not particularly close to a deal. The two sides will stay in touch, but today there is pessimism about how long Donald’s holdout could last.”

Donald quickly has become one of the most dominant defensive ends in football, but his current contract certainly does not reflect that. The two-time first-team All Pro selection is scheduled to receive $8.5 million combined over the next two seasons — far less than what other players of his caliber make.

The Rams aren’t expected to be very strong in 2017, and matters would be much worse if Donald — who racked up 164 tackles and 28 sacks in his first three NFL seasons — isn’t on the field.

“Madden NFL 18” won’t be released until Aug. 25, but CBS Sports already has gifted us one of the wildest simulations you’ll see this season.

CBSSports.com’s Will Brinson gave readers a sneak peek at the video game, going through all of the new features and graphics for fans to marvel at. But the real fun came at the end when Brinson went through everything that happened in his simulated season.

There definitely were some very plausible outcomes, with the Atlanta Falcons winning Super Bowl LII and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott winning NFL MVP, but there also are just as many results that don’t make much sense. Namely, the Buffalo Bills won the AFC East over the New England Patriots.

The Bills pulled this off despite Patriots quarterback Tom Brady throwing for 5,355 yards and 34 touchdowns while completing 75 percent of his passes. Wide receiver Julian Edelman also led the league with 1,681 receiving yards, which makes the Bills thing even more confusing and likely won’t happen, either, considering how many weapons Brady has.

The Oregon State men’s basketball team survived its close encounter with terror intact.

The Barcelona attack, in which a speeding van plowed into a crowd of pedestrians in the city’s historic Las Ramblas district, took place Thursday near where the Oregon State team is staying. Head coach Wayne Tinkle and assistant coach Gregg Gottlieb confirmed the Beavers are safe.

Please keep all those impacted by today's tragedy in Barcelona in your thoughts and prayers! No words to describe the sadness.

The Oregon State team arrived in Barcelona on Monday for its summer trip to Spain. The Beavers were supposed to play the first game of their trip Thursday, but the contest was canceled after the attack, according to The Oregonian’s Danny Moran.

The Arizona, Clemson and Tulane men’s basketball teams also were in Spain to play exhibition games, and each school reported everyone in its parties was safe.

The president of Spain’s Catalonia region said Thursday at a press conference that the Barcelona attack had killed at least 13 people and injured at least 80 others, according to The Associated Press. Police have arrested one suspect, and authorities are treating the attack as an act of terror.

Once upon a time, Giancarlo Stanton looked like a perfect fit for the Boston Red Sox.

Then, things changed.

Namely, Stanton signed a huge contract extension with the Miami Marlins, battled injuries for a couple of seasons and showed signs of regression before eventually returning to All-Star form in 2017. All the while, Boston’s roster underwent a significant facelift that has the organization in a far different spot than it was two or three years ago, when Stanton’s name was kicked around in trade rumors ad nauseam.

Add everything up and a Stanton trade no longer makes much sense for the Red Sox, who entered Thursday a season-high 18 games above .500 (69-51) and in first place in the American League East, 4 1/2 games ahead of the second-place New York Yankees.

Sure, Stanton is a legitimate superstar in the midst of an incredible hot streak that could propel him past the 60-home run mark this season, something accomplished just eight times by five different players in MLB history. And he’d fill the Red Sox’s need for a power bat in the middle of their lineup following David Ortiz’s retirement. But a bigger picture look at Stanton’s career track record and Boston’s current state of affairs shows quite clearly that a trade for the four-time All-Star isn’t worth much consideration.

First of all, the Red Sox already have an elite right fielder in Mookie Betts, who, interestingly enough, probably would have been one of the prospects traded to the Marlins if the sides ever agreed on a Stanton trade back in 2014 or 2015. The Marlins still could ask for Betts in any trade involving Stanton, but the Red Sox almost certainly would hang up the phone. As alluring as Stanton’s home run prowess is, Betts is three years younger, under team control through 2020 and a better all-around player (only Mike Trout, Jose Altuve, Kris Bryant and Corey Seager own a better WAR, according to FanGraphs, than Betts since the beginning of last season).

Theoretically, Boston could swing a trade sans Betts with the intention of putting Stanton in left field; Betts is arguably the best defensive right fielder in baseball, all while playing a very tough right field at Fenway Park. Or perhaps Stanton could fill a designated hitter role with Boston. But really, who are the Red Sox going to give up?

They’ve unloaded an important chunk of their prospect pool over the last couple of years in trades for Chris Sale, Craig Kimbrel, Drew Pomeranz and Tyler Thornburg, leaving the organization thin on high-end talent outside the likes of third baseman Rafael Devers and highly regarded left-hander Jay Groome. And it’s hard to imagine the Red Sox parting with either of those farmhands, especially Devers, who already has looked like the real deal since earning a big league promotion in late July.

Trading Devers would be a classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, as the 20-year-old’s stellar play finally has brought some stability to third base, a position that’s long been a black hole for Boston. Plus, who’s to say Devers’ prodigious power doesn’t someday match (or surpass) Stanton’s Herculean pop?

The Red Sox might have to pluck from their major league roster if they’re looking to land Stanton. And trading Andrew Benintendi — Boston’s most valuable big league asset beyond Betts, Devers and ace Chris Sale — isn’t all that appealing given that he’s four years younger than Stanton and a more well-rounded talent capable of sliding over to center field when necessary. The Sox rookie also is under team control through 2022, bringing us to our next point: Stanton’s contract is a burden.

Stanton, who signed a heavily backloaded contract with Miami before the 2015 season, is owed $295 million over the next 10 years. That’s a giant financial commitment, obviously, and it’s an even more daunting investment when you consider the Red Sox eventually will want to lock up their young core — Betts, Benintendi, Jackie Bradley Jr. and/or Xander Bogaerts — to long-term contracts, something that already figures to be a complicated matter.

So yes, in a world where money doesn’t matter and where star players can be obtained for spare parts, Stanton would be an excellent pickup for the Red Sox, whether it’s this month (now that he’s cleared waivers) or over the offseason. And even then, Stanton has flaws — subpar defense/baserunning, inconsistent on-base numbers, injury issues — that shouldn’t be overlooked in spite of his recent surge or his propensity for showing up on highlight reels thanks to the majestic nature of his big flies.

In short, the Red Sox can’t afford to fall victim to the moment. Trading for Stanton seemed like a no-brainer a few years ago. Now, not trading for him is just as easy to justify.

If you follow Patrick’s Instagram even somewhat closely, you know she’ll do a handstand just about anywhere. Middle of a running river? Check. On top of her No. 10 in victory lane? Well, maybe someday.

Heck, not even a pair of awkward boots can stop the Stewart-Haas Racing driver from getting her yoga on.

And recently, in the midst of the playful day by the pool she’d been “craving,” Patrick took her balancing act atop a wall.

The question here is, just what role did Patrick’s boyfriend, fellow-NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr., play in all of this?

Judging from the caption, it stands to reason Stenhouse either built the pool, the building in the background, or maybe all of it. Either way, NASCAR’s hottest couple clearly has moved on from their unfortunate run-in at Sonoma Raceway.

Let’s just hope that Patrick sticks to these yoga-themed Instagrams, rather than that bizarre photo of Kyle Larson’s son she recently posted.

Blake Bortles is Tom Brady 2.0. At least he is when there’s nothing on the line.

If you weren’t already scratching your head when the Jacksonville Jaguars picked up the quarterback’s 2018 contract option this May, then you will be once you read what FiveThirtyEight discovered in an analysis of garbage-time numbers. Because as it turns out, Bortles is only good when his team has no chance of winning.

“In garbage time — which we define as the last five minutes of the fourth quarter, when a team is down multiple scores (9 or more points) — Bortles transforms into the franchise quarterback Jacksonville envisioned when they made him the No. 3 overall pick in the 2014 NFL Draft,” Michael Salfino wrote. “In these scenarios in the past two seasons, Bortles has completed 78 of 118 for 964 yards with 12 touchdowns. He’s tossed only four picks. His passer rating in these instances is 111. To get a sense of how good that is, Tom Brady’s rating across all of last season was 112.”

FiveThirtyEight found that since 2015, Bortles has thrown a whopping 20.7 percent of his touchdown passes in garbage time — nearly four times greater than the NFL average. Not to mention, Bortles is the reason the Jags always are so behind in the first place.

“The only thing Bortles is as good at as posting garbage-time numbers is creating garbage time with his lackluster play in meaningful time,” Salfino wrote. “According to ESPN data, last year when a team was within one score (8 or fewer points) in the first half of games … Bortles was the worst quarterback in football. He completed 96 of 158 passes (60.8 percent) last year for 963 yards and just five touchdowns versus eight picks. His rating in these situations was just 67.6. What’s more, in the past two years, Bortles has thrown only half as many touchdown passes in the first quarter of all games (six) as he threw in the last five minutes of games he had already lost.”

Ouch.

Plenty of pundits have predicted that 2017 will be the Jaguars’ year, but they might be changing their minds now.

College football season hasn’t even started, but Nick Saban already is in mid-season form.

During a press conference Wednesday, the University of Alabama football coach was asked about Christian Miller, a redshirt sophomore linebacker. Saban, clearly upset about something or other, quickly became unhinged, and went on a minute-long rang about the over-predictive media.

Good to know that Saban, for all his Belichickian stoicism, is able to laugh at himself once in a while. Also, this reporter shouldn’t take the diatribe personally, as it’s clear that Saban walked in that room with one purpose, and one purpose only: to vent.

Patrik Sandell showed off the Subaru team’s improving pace this season with a hard-fought second-overall at the first round of this weekend’s GRC Atlantic City doubleheader.

The Swedish rally star, at the wheel of his Vermont SportsCar-prepared 600-horsepower Subaru WRX STI, showed impressive pace throughout the rain-soaked day, finishing his semifinal second overall and then leading a majority of the ten-lap Final. The Final culminated with Sandell locked in a crowd-pleasing back-and-forth fight against GRC Champion Scott Speed, who edged out Sandell for victory on the last lap.

“It was a good race, I was able to have a clean start and I got away quick,” Sandell said at the podium. “I was leading for most of the time, but I was not able to hold off Scott (Speed) on the last two laps. I didn’t really want to fight him too crazy and risk anything because we were up there, so I’m happy with second and it feels like a win.”

Sandell’s teammate Chris Atkinson also finished his semifinal in second place, and started the final from the front row. However, Atkinson was hit from the rear just after the start of the chaotic final, breaking his rear suspension and forcing him to pull off and retire.

“It would take a white player to really get things changed because when somebody from the other side understands and they step up and they speak up about it … it would change the whole conversation,” Bennett said on ESPN’s “SC6” on Wednesday. “Because when you bring somebody who doesn’t have to be a part of (the) conversation making himself vulnerable in front of it, I think when that happens, things will really take a jump.”

Bennett told hosts Jemele Hill and Michael Smith that he decided to start his protest before the Seahawks’ preseason game Sunday in response to the events in Charlottesville, Va., that happened a mere 24 hours earlier. But the 31-year-old believes others have backed off now that Colin Kaepernick, who began the movement, is out of a job.

“He had to sacrifice,” Bennett said of Kaepernick. “He spoke up and dealt with a lot of things that were going on — from death threats, people not wanting him in the stadium, people hating him. I think a lot of players were scared of that. Then on top of that, players feeling like he was being blackballed, people were eventually scared.

“But now, just because he’s out of the league, we didn’t want to lose that message, pushing for liberty and equality for everybody. We just wanted to keep that message alive.”

Bennett also made his objective clear once again, saying the Seahawks on Wednesday hosted some military guests who hugged him and said they trusted him.

“People make this divide like I’m trying to disrespect the military,” Bennett said. “And they come to me and say this is what they’re fighting for. It just touched my heart.”

McGregor admitted Wednesday during a media conference call that he’s seen the “#McGregorChallenge” parody videos poking fun at his unique arm loosening warm-up. The UFC champion has one big problem with the social media craze, though, and it has to do with everyone’s technique.

“I’ve seen some videos. It is what it is. It’s lighthearted, I don’t take it personal,” McGregor said, per MMAFighting.com. “If anything, I see stiffness in every single one of them. You must have the limbs free. The shoulders must be disconnected. You must have the ability to disconnect your shoulders and re-connect it at the point of impact.

“With that skill set is how you can change a jab to a hook in the blink of an eye. Or a jab to an uppercut in the blink of an eye. It’s the same thing with the hip flexors for kicks.”

The strange-looking workout has inspired a whole bunch of responses from fans and fellow fighters trying to mimic McGregor’s flailing arm motion. But, like with most anything else, nothing beats the original version, although it remains to be seen whether it’ll help The Notorious when he steps into the boxing ring to face Floyd Mayweather Jr. on Aug. 26.

Every week, iRacing, the world’s premier online racing simulation service, highlights its latest news for NESN Fuel. This week, iRacing revealed its new partnership with McLaren for the World’s Fastest Gamer competition. Read more about iRacing here.

iRacing and McLaren have announced a partnership in the World’s Fastest Gamer competition Thursday. iRacing, the world’s leading online racing simulation, will host a four-week series featuring the McLaren Honda Formula 1 car where the winner will earn an invitation to the World’s Fastest Gamer finals to be held in November at the McLaren Technology Center in Woking, Surrey, U.K.

The iRacing qualification series will begin on Tuesday, Sept. 12 and run through Oct. 9. Featuring races in the McLaren MP4-30 at Suzuka International Racing Course, Circuit of the Americas, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza and Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace (Interlagos), the series will have multiples races each day allowing the tens of thousands of iRacing members ample opportunity to qualify for an invitation to the finals and the ultimate prize – to be named as a McLaren Formula 1 simulator driver.

“We are excited to able to announce this new avenue for gamers to participate in the World’s Fastest Gamer competition,” iRacing.com executive producer and executive vice president Steve Myers said. “We have been partners with McLaren for many years now, first with McLaren Electronics, then McLaren Automotive and finally McLaren Racing, so it is only natural to continue to expand this partnership by including an iRacing element to this competition.

“iRacing is known for the caliber of online racers we attract and produce so we fully expect the iRacing qualifier to represent sim racers all around the world very well,” Myers added.

“I know first-hand just how detailed and realistic iRacing is, having worked with the iRacing team when they built my race team’s MP4-12C GT3 car a few years ago,” McLaren Group executive director Zak Brown said. “We are anxious to see who will qualify from iRacing and know they will produce a top-tier candidate for the World’s Fastest Gamer finals in November.”

iRacing worked directly with McLaren Technology Group’s chief operating officer Jonathan Neale’s team to build a digital replica of the MP4-30 to ensure the car would look and handle exactly as its real-world counterpart. The laser-scanned tracks in iRacing’s vast inventory of international race tracks deliver an unparalleled driving experience – so real in fact that many professional drivers use iRacing for practice and training. Combining the precisely modeled cars and tracks with the best online match-making and racing, iRacing delivers an unrivaled gaming experience for motorsports fans around the world.

Perennial top iRacing driver Greger Huttu has already qualified for the World’s Fastest Gamer finals based on his historical performance on iRacing. Having won five of the past seven world championships on iRacing, Huttu has established himself as one of the greatest sim racers, and iRacers, of all time. McLaren recognized his unequaled sim racing resume and extended an automatic invitation to the finals.

iRacing will be broadcasting qualifying races each week at iRacingLive (www.iRacing.com/live). Tune in at 19:00 GMT every Sunday, beginning on Sept. 17.

It’s important to note that the iRacing World’s Fastest Gamer qualification series is open to everyone, including existing iRacing members as well as any new members who sign up now. All you need to get started on iRacing is a computer, a controller and an internet connection.

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Players from four WNBA teams — the Los Angeles Sparks, Washington Mystics, Seattle Storm and Minnesota Lynx — locked arms Wednesday night prior to their respective games as a demonstration of both unity and protest, which came four days after a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., turned deadly.

“It is not a surprise that racism and bigotry exist in this country, but it is not something we stand for in any way,” Mystics and Sparks players said in a statement, per The Associated Press. “We feel great shock, sickness, and sadness with the degree of acceptance and normalization of this hatred, culminating in ways in the events in Charlottesville this past weekend.

“We feel pain and disbelief following the blatant hate displayed and the President’s response to it. There is no way to innocently protest alongside a hate-based group and to take pause on condemning the acts that took place is inexcusable.”

Kyle O’Dell just might help save another racer’s life, all because he almost lost his own.

During a a sportsman feature race at Indiana’s South Bend Motor Speedway on Saturday, O’Dell was involved in a violent wreck when his No. 0 slammed hard into the wall. Thanks in large part to his HANS (Head and Neck Support) device, O’Dell walked away from the crash relatively unscathed.

And although he’ll be without a ride for a little while, O’Dell wants to make sure his HANS device doesn’t just collect dust.

It’s been an eventful week for a couple of Major League Baseball’s most recognizable stars.

Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals suffered a significant bone bruise on his left knee last weekend when he slipped awkwardly on first base following a rain delay lasting more than three hours. The Nationals avoided disaster, as Harper didn’t suffer any ligament damage, but the outfielder’s injury makes Washington’s stretch run a bit more difficult and calls into question whether MLB should tweak its rules.

On the flip side, Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins has had far better luck recently, launching home runs on an almost nightly basis. Some wonder whether Stanton, who set a Marlins single-season franchise record with his 43rd homer earlier this week, could launch 60 bombs before all is said and done. And interestingly enough, the Marlins slugger’s name has been tossed around in trade rumors.

The NESN.com crew looked at the developments surrounding both Harper and Stanton on the latest episode of the “The Dish.” They also broke down the Boston Red Sox’s winning ways, whether MLB Players Weekend is a good idea and which teams are destined for postseason success.

The St. Louis Cardinals lost two games to the Boston Red Sox, and now they might lose their beloved Rally Cat.

As the story goes, Rally Cat invaded the Busch Stadium field during the sixth inning of the Cards’ Aug. 9 game against the Kansas City Royals while catcher Yadier Molina was at the plate. After a brief chase, the kitten was removed, and Molina immediately hit a grand slam to pull ahead of the Royals in an eventual 8-5 win. In a strange twist, Rally Cat went missing, but he eventually landed at a local shelter, from which the Cardinals expected to adopt him.

“The St. Louis Feral Cat Outreach organization has assured us they will be returning our cat to us after a mandatory 10-day quarantine period,” Cardinals vice president of communications Ron Watermon told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

“Rally Cat will be cared for by our team, making the Cardinals’ clubhouse his home,” Watermon added. “(Manager) Mike (Matheny) and our players are looking forward to loving and caring for him.”

However, the St. Louis Feral Cat Outreach gave an update on Rally Cat on Facebook on Wednesday, and it didn’t seem as though the Cardinals were guaranteed to be his next owner. The organization said Rally Cat wasn’t gaining enough weight and would need to be quarantined for longer and neutered, adding a little bit about the adoption process that might not sit well with the Cards.

There’s no shortage of NASCAR fans who love to hate Kyle Busch. But some take it a bit too far.

Busch, whose on- and off-track tantrums have made him perhaps the most detested driver in the sport, recently headlined a pair of late model races at Kalamazoo Speedway in Michigan. While there, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver apparently experienced an exorbitant amount of heckling, with some “fans” going so far as to wish death upon him.

Take a look at this description of what Busch — and his family — endured, courtesy of The Caution Clock:

Assuming this reporting is accurate, some of those people clearly crossed a line.

Listen, does “Rowdy” deserve criticism at times? Absolutely. And it’s not hard to see why some fans disapprove of him competing in lower racing series. But a driver of Busch’s stature showing up to hyperlocal events is something that should be celebrated and appreciated by the fans in attendance.

Instead, they very well might have discouraged him from ever returning to the track, which is something they may come to regret.

As the New England Patriots prepare to take on the Houston Texans on Saturday in their second preseason game, let’s take a look at a few Patriots position battles that remain unsettled.

DEFENSIVE END
The Patriots lost three-quarters of their defensive end rotation from last season when Chris Long and Jabaal Sheard left in free agency and Rob Ninkovich retired. It’s still unclear exactly how the team will replace them.

Trey Flowers is a lock to start on one side, but the other spot has been a mix of Deatrich Wise, Kony Ealy, Derek Rivers, Geneo Grissom and Caleb Kidder, with hybrid linebackers Shea McClellin and Harvey Langi and defensive tackle Adam Butler also seeing time on the edge. Pro Bowl linebacker Dont’a Hightower could be an option there moving forward, as well.

Wise, Rivers, McClellin and Hightower all currently are injured, however, and recently signed Keionta Davis has yet to suit up. That has complicated matters and made it difficult to project who will start opposite Flowers in Week 1.

LINEBACKER
Outside of Hightower, there still are no definites here.

Langi has been running with the first team throughout training camp (albeit with Hightower sidelined), and McClellin, Kyle Van Noy and veteran newcomer David Harris all look like roster locks or near-locks. That could leave second-year pro Elandon Roberts — who, like Harris, is a talented run defender but struggles in pass coverage — on the outside looking in.

28-year-old Jonathan Freeny, a favorite of head coach Bill Belichick, also remains in the mix, as do 2016 practice squadder Trevor Bates and undrafted rookie Brooks Ellis.

TIGHT END
Rob Gronkowski is the unquestioned starter, and Dwayne Allen, who’s enjoying strong summer after struggling in the spring, looks like the clear No. 2. That leaves Jacob Hollister, James O’Shaughnessy, Matt Lengel and Sam Cotton battling for the third — and likely final — tight end spot.

Hollister, an undrafted rookie, was a monster in the Patriots’ preseason opener, leading the team in both catches and receiving yards. O’Shaughnessy, who was a core special teamer in Kansas City before being traded to New England on draft night, was limited with an injury last week but reportedly looked good in the Patriots’ joint practices with the Houston Texans.

Lengel, the only holdover from last year’s team, is bigger (6-foot-7, 265 pounds) but less dynamic than Hollister and O’Shaugnessy. Cotton, another undrafted rookie, has dropped too many passes this summer and has the longest odds of cracking the 53-man roster.

CORNERBACK
The top four cornerback spots are all but set in stone at this point, with Malcolm Butler and Stephon Gilmore handling starting duties and Eric Rowe and Jonathan Jones coming off the bench. The fifth remains a big question mark, however.

Right now, the top candidates for that spot are Cyrus Jones, Justin Coleman and undrafted rookies Kenny Moore and D.J. Killings, with fellow UDFA Will Likely lagging behind the pack.

The Patriots are giving Jones every opportunity to seize that spot. The 2016 second-round draft pick started and played every snap in last Thursday’s preseason opener, remaining in the game even after he allowed two long touchdown passes. And honestly, if Jones continues to be reliable in the return game, which he has been all summer, how he plays on defense might not even matter.

Moore and Killings have more upside than Coleman, who hardly saw the field in the second half of last season.

SAFETY
This is a bottom-of-the-depth chart battle between Jordan Richards, Damarius Travis, Jason Thompson and David Jones, as Devin McCourty, Patrick Chung, Duron Harmon and Nate Ebner already are locked into roster spots.

Richards, a 2015 second-round pick who played all of 18 defensive snaps last season, did himself no favors last Thursday with a rough performance against the Jacksonville Jaguars. He hasn’t shown much since the first few days of camp.

Travis started against the Jaguars and played well, and Thompson has flashed at times in practice.

OFFENSIVE TACKLE
Cameron Fleming and LaAdrian Waddle appear to be the two players battling for New England’s third tackle spot behind Nate Solder and Marcus Cannon. The loser of that battle likely will be cut, as the team surely will carry 2017 third-round draft pick Tony Garcia on the 53-man roster, as well.

Fleming was the swing tackle in 2016, and Waddle’s effort to leapfrog him hit a snag Tuesday when he was injured in joint practice and sent home for further evaluation. The exact nature and severity of that injury remain unclear.

Giancarlo Stanton believes records — even tainted ones — are made to be broken.

The Miami Marlins slugger admitted Wednesday he doubts the legitimacy of the single-season home-run records that Babe Ruth set in 1927, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa topped in 1998, and Barry Bonds ultimately surpassed in 2001. Stanton agrees with those who consider Ruth’s record tainted because it came before Major League Baseball had integrated itself and Sosa’s, McGwire’s and Bonds’ marks to be blemished since they happened during baseball’s “steroid era,” according to The Miami Herald’s Andre C. Fernandez.

“Considering some things, I do,” Stanton said. “But at the same time, it doesn’t matter. The record is the record. But personally I think I do.”

However, Stanton accepts the 61 home runs Roger Maris hit in 1961 as legitimate.

“When you grow up watching all the old films of Babe Ruth and (Mickey) Mantle and those guys, 61 has always been that printed number as a kid,” Stanton said.

Stanton — who, interestingly enough, had Bonds as his hitting coach last year — already has 44 home runs this season and is on pace to hit 60. He’ll probably leave it up to future generations to determine how justifiable his 2017 body of work proves to be.

Gerald McCoy is trying to make sure he isn’t penalized for celebrating this season.

The NFL relaxed its celebration rules a bit this year, and referees went around the league to explain all of the rule changes to players before the regular season begins. And when ref Ed Hochuli visited Tampa Bay Buccaneers camp, McCoy had a lot of questions about what he could and couldn’t do.

Luckily, HBO’s “Hard Knocks” captured the full exchange, which featured the defensive end showing off his dance moves while repeatedly asking Hochuli, “Is this too much?”

Hochuli explained that McCoy’s moves might be too suggestive for some refs even though he’d only give him a warning. But McCoy had a pretty rock solid argument that as long as he puts on a serious face, “That’s not sexual — that’s grooving.”

If you frequented sports bars during the 2016 NFL season, you might’ve noticed there were a few more open seats than usual.

Well, there’s a reason for that.

Foursquare, an app that recommends places you should visit and also provides data on who goes where and when, published a study Thursday that shows sports bar traffic on Sundays during the 2016 NFL season dropped from 2015. Specifically, cities without NFL teams saw a 13 percent dip in foot traffic, while cities with NFL franchises witnessed a 12 percent decrease.

Perhaps the most interesting detail from the study, though, is that it didn’t matter whether a given city’s team was winning or losing. Take a look at this graphic:

Although this data is pretty alarming, particularly for bar owners, it’s not much of a surprise.

The NFL saw one of its worst ratings dips in recent memory last season, as total viewership dropped 8 percent from 2015 to 2016, according to USA TODAY.

Now, there are more than a few reasonable explanations for that drop, with Americans’ collective focus on the 2016 presidential election perhaps being the biggest culprit. Still, it’s hard to argue that the country’s interest in football hasn’t begun to wane.

It’s not every day you see a baserunner who was stationed at third base get thrown out at the plate on a base hit to center field. Yet that’s what happened Wednesday night in the second inning of the Boston Red Sox’s 5-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Fenway Park.

Carpenter was on third base when Tommy Pham singled into center field with one out. It was a sinking line drive that dropped just in front of Red Sox center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr., who came up firing to the plate to nab Carpenter for the second out of the inning.

You see, the problem was that Carpenter thought Bradley might catch the ball on a line, thus requiring the Cardinals infielder to tag up at third base before proceeding home. Instead, Bradley fielded the ball on a bounce, meaning that although Carpenter tagged up at third base, it really wasn’t necessary. And as a result, Carpenter was dead as a doornail at the plate.

Bradley’s throw was clocked at 95.8 mph, according to Statcast.

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In some cases, there isn’t much shame in getting thrown out at the plate while trying to score on a sacrifice fly, especially when you’re running against Bradley on a line drive to shallow center field. It looks a whole lot worse, however, when the ball drops and you’re gunned down.

Then again, Carpenter probably would have been criticized if he stayed at third base, too, as that would have meant not scoring on a single. So really, the runner was in a no-win situation.

The out proved huge, as the Red Sox, who were trailing 4-0 at the time, clawed their way back, scoring three runs in the ninth inning for a walk-off victory.

Aaron Judge took the term “no-doubter” to another level Wednesday night.

The New York Yankees outfielder is known for his incredible power — his 37 home runs are second in Major League Baseball and first in the American League — but he hit a dinger in the fourth inning against the New York Mets that was impressive even by his standards. Judge’s solo bomb traveled 457 feet, landed in the third deck at Citi Field and left the park so quickly that Mets left fielder Yoenis Cespedes didn’t even move a muscle.

Judge went 2-for-5 with two runs and an RBI, and the Yankees came away with the 5-3 win. However, the 25-year-old also struck out for the 33rd consecutive game, which tops all non-pitchers as the single-season record.

Asensio’s strike gave Real Madrid the lead in the game and extended its aggregate advantage to 4-1, all but killing Barcelona’s comeback chances. Real Madrid went to win 2-0 and lift the Super Cup, Spanish soccer’s first available trophy of the 2017-18 season, courtesy of its 5-1 aggregate victory.

Having won last season’s La Liga (Spanish League) and UEFA Champions League titles, Real Madrid enters the new campaign unquestionably holding bragging rights over Barcelona, its eternal rival.

After presiding over Real Madrid from 2006 to 2016, Barcelona captain Gerard Pique admits his team now is second-best among the Spanish soccer giants.

“This a long process and there is room for improvement, but in the nine years that I have been here, it is the first time that I feel inferior to Madrid,” Pique said after the Super Cup loss, per the Guardian. “We are not in the best moment, either as a team or as a club. We must stay as close as possible and keep moving forwards.”

At the heart of the power shift is Asensio, a 21-year-old whom Barcelona rejected in 2014 in favor of older, more expensive targets.

After competing against the Houston Texans on the practice field Wednesday, Tom Brady made the day of one young fan.

11-year-old Gabe Lester is a West Virginia native and diehard New England Patriots fan who currently is undergoing cancer treatments. After sitting through a round of chemotherapy Wednesday morning, Gabe and his family made the trip to the Texans’ training camp facility in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., where he got the chance to meet his favorite quarterback.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Tom,” Brady said as he greeted the group after practice.

A morning that began with a chemotherapy treatment for 11-year-old Gabe Lester also included a special meeting with Tom Brady: pic.twitter.com/EWr5xxgcTA

Brady, who will travel to Houston on Thursday ahead of the Patriots’ second preseason game, signed a few autographs and posed for pictures with the Lester family.

“The two things he said, he said he wanted to go to New England and watch the Patriots play, and the second was to meet Tom Brady,” Lester’s father said in a video posted by the Patriots’ official Twitter account. “And I said, ‘I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to do it, but I’ll do my very best.”

Not only did the Boston Red Sox score three runs in the ninth inning Wednesday night — one on Xander Bogaerts’ solo home run and two on Mookie Betts’ walk-off double — en route to a 5-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Fenway Park. But Cardinals manager Mike Matheny also was ejected with one out in the last inning for blowing up on home plate umpire Chris Segal.

Matheny stormed out of the dugout after Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina started to get into it with Segal, who called timeout (on his own) right before John Brebbia was about to deliver an 0-2 pitch to Eduardo Nunez with runners at first and second. Brebbia had held the ball for a long time, seemingly in an attempt to control Boston’s running game, and Segal evidently wanted to reset things before the big offering, which didn’t sit well with Matheny, who could be heard telling the ump, “It’s not your show, man.”

Really, Matheny’s blow-up was the culmination of frustration that had been growing all night for the Cardinals. And it didn’t take long for Segal to give the ticked-off skipper the hook.

The problem for the Cardinals was they still had a game to win. And although Nunez popped out to the right side for the second out of the inning, Betts ensured the Fenway Faithful went home happy by hitting a line drive off the Green Monster to plate both Chris Young and Jackie Bradley Jr. and give the Red Sox a walk-off victory.

Matheny explained his frustration after the game.

The win was big for the Red Sox, as they remain 4 1/2 games ahead of the New York Yankees, who defeated the New York Mets on Wednesday night. And the defeat was huge for the Cardinals, as they now sit in third place, 2 1/2 games back in the National League Central, with both the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers winning their games.